Google yet again takes aim at Microsoft, with a new Internet browser this time

Google has publicly released its own Web browser, Google Chrome, in an effort to compete with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, it was revealed over Labor Day weekend. News of the new browser reached a few select Google users through a 38-page comic book that is available by clicking here.

"We believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web," a blog entry on the official Google Blog reported. "All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there."

Chrome will be available tomorrow for Microsoft Windows users in more than 100 nations, with Google working on a Linux and Apple MacOS X versions in the works. A time range for the Linux and MacOS X versions has not been released.

The open source browser was built using Apple WebKit, Mozilla Firefox, and other open source technologies -- and Google will open up Chrome so the community has the ability to tinker with it.

Google is engaged in a battle with Microsoft on multiple fronts, with Internet browsing, e-mail, calendars and word processing, and similar services the focus of both companies. IE is used by 75 percent of internet users, although it has been slowly losing ground to Firefox. Google and Mozilla recently renewed their working agreement with one another, and the agreement is good until 2011.

Last week, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8, offering multiple features lacking from previous IE versions that left users frustrated and annoyed. Google built a "foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications" better than other browsers, utilizing new techniques not used with other browsers. For example, Google hopes to have faster browsing by using Javascript; using cloud computing to make information available offline; a bug in a single tab will affect just the one tab, not the entire browser like in Firefox and IE; and tabs will be located on top of the address bar.

There has been heavy speculation over the past couple years about Google working on its own internet browser, but the company remained silent about its project.

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